TWolves Before/After

One big problem is the lack of interest most big free agents will have in Minnesota. For small market teams like the Wolves, draft picks are a premium, and retaining those that pan out is imperative. McHale mostly failed at the first (bad selections – when they were not stripped of 1st round picks for his own evil doing with Joe Smith), but at least was able to lock up KG and has now locked up Big Al.

I really don’t ever see that team contending until they have a quality coach and more than a few years playing with each other.

It’s a poor franchise, they are never going to spend the money needed to build a championship team. Boston should buy them out and have two teams here, they need to get out of Minnesota.

I’ll admit that I never wanted KG to be traded from Minny, but on the other hand as a KG fan I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out this year.

That said, I still don’t see why (from Minny’s POV) he had to be traded. At the time of the deal, he was supposedly willing to sign the same extension in Minnesota that he signed in Boston, so they could have had him locked up for the next four years. In essence, Minny is spending the same amount of money over those 4 years on Big Al, Gomes, and Telfair…and I’m still not convinced that 4 years from now at age 35 KG won’t have a bigger on-court impact than those 3 put together will in their 20s (and there’s almost no way that they generate the kind of off-court buzz, endorsements, and fan appreciation that KG produces off-court).

I applaud the other moves Mchale has made…the Miami trade was brilliant, I liked the Love/Miller trade more than most Minny fans, and many of the roster maintenance moves have been good as well. They’re the type of moves that I was hoping that Mchale would make BEFORE he traded KG. In fact, there’s no reason at all that they couldn’t have made the same moves having kept KG. Keeping it simple (i.e. not trying to re-create what the Wolves’ record would have been with KG instead of the Celtics trio), the current squad would look better for now and (IMO) in the future with KG still on the team. They’d have a similar cap situation and similar young talent, but built around a legitimate superstar (which negates the majority of the criticism that they got for trading Mayo).

But that’s just my 2 cents on my thoughts if I were Minny’s GM. As is, I’m actively looking forward to KG and the Celts going for the repeat this year.

MinneCeltics are my 2nd favorite team. They really surprised alot of teams the 2nd half of the season and their younger players are getting better. Getting Mike Miller was a steal and pairing Al Jefferson with Kevin Love will only increase their offensive efficiency. So that half ballhandling, shooting, inside scoring, and rebounding, and coaching (ex celtics). Whether they can be an over .500 team depends on their ability to play defense.

Meh, while I like Gomes & Al, I don’t feel like McHale is doing much except overpaying for Free Agents (except for Al) who weren’t getting bigger offers elsewhere. I like Gomes, but 5 years? And Telfair? He should be a year to year player until he can prove otherwise. Who plays D besides Gomes? Brewer is still green (and plays the same postion as Gomes) and Telfair and Al are a wash on the defensive end.

Minny will get 35W this year. A bad team trying to be a mediocre one. I can’t see them ever getting the talent with Big Al to contend. Kevin Love, Foye, Miller another pick or 2 won’t get it done. Dumb for McHale not to let Riley “wet his beak” and make the trade for Beasely.

For the next decade Minny will be looking up at Portland, just as young, much more talented and Microsoft money to spend out the whazoo. Minny will be mediocre for the next decade. All will be the Elton Brand of his generation, nice player on so-so bad teams.

That’s the way it will be Minny fans, learn it and love it.

I have to agree with docextension: a bad team trying to be a mediocre one. Nuff said.
Said for Minnesota, which I’d love to have as one of my fave teams, behind the Celtics and Hornets. (And the Hawks… I suppose.)

Kevin McHale, the vice president of basketball for the Wolves, said the team has a $5.8 million mid-level exception they could use for signing one or more free agents. But McHale said he doesn’t have any plans to spend that money, because he doesn’t see anybody available that could help the team more than the players they have on the present roster.

See how this nonsense works yet? They don’t go after Tony Allen, Childress, House, many other players that can help them, now all of a sudden after making no effort, the owner pockets the $5.8M because he can’t find a player to help. Nice.

So Griffin still counted against the cap even though he died? I guess things didn’t change since Reggie Lewis…